


you cut through all the noise

by easydays



Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Plane Travels, fluff all the way, no but for real though... disgustingly soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easydays/pseuds/easydays
Summary: As far as he could remember, Kyle had always hated flying.
Relationships: Kyle Simmons/Dan Smith
Comments: 12
Kudos: 28





	you cut through all the noise

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya!
> 
> Hope everyone’s alright, even with the world going to bits - very cheerful way to start this, kudos to me.
> 
> In case anyone needed a short moment of distraction and escapism, here’s this fic I started working on last year as I was flying back to London but then gave up on as it, believe it or not, sounded too soft.
> 
> If anything, I think we all need some fluff right now and I quite liked what I’d done with this, so I decided it would be a waste not to finish it. It’s pointless honestly, doesn’t really have a proper plot, but I love writing these small domestic scenes, like moments frozen in time.
> 
> Do let me know if that is something you like reading too, because I would love writing some more!
> 
> Xx

As far as he could remember, Kyle had always hated flying. He hated the confined space he had to breathe the air of for several hours, and he was terrified at the thought of having to place his life in the hands of a stranger, who he could only hope knew perfectly what they were doing. The memory of squinting at his bandmates fucking catching some sleep on their first flight to America — wondering how in hell they could feel so carefree that they would actually throw caution to the wind and fall asleep — was still fresh in his mind. 

Kyle was usually fairly laid-back, he rarely overthought things, just went with the flow. The concept of panicking wasn’t familiar to him directly and he was more often than not the one people called for when they were freaking out about something. They knew he’d be calm enough to help them take a step back and figure things out. In fact, that was how he’d taken up on becoming Dan’s best and most effective anxiety medication. 

Dan had been his friend before they had started dating, so, of course, he had helped him out whenever he was having a panic attack and Kyle happened to be around, but as months and then years went by, it began to be surprisingly yet clearly obvious that no one else’s presence could ever soothe Dan’s nerves the way Kyle’s presence always did. So the keyboardist had converted himself into the one everyone knew they had to call for if Dan ever started spiralling too much. And the younger man had never really believed in soulmates, he still most certainly didn’t, but the fact that him and Dan just clicked was undeniable. 

By the time they got together, Kyle had learnt every trick and ruse to get Dan’s pulse to stop beating so hard against his own fingers, laced around his friend’s wrists to ground him to reality — to be his anchor. He knew how to hold him — not too tight, because you wouldn’t want to worsen the feeling of suffocation, but tight enough that the older man knew Kyle was there, that he wouldn’t let him down once on stage, that he’d be his something to hold onto morning, noon, day or night. He knew how to talk Dan through the panic he was being suddenly overwhelmed with by getting him to breathe normally again, and he knew how to distract him — to hell with his hatred for Twin Peaks and anything David Lynch-related, because if it helped the storm in Dan’s eyes die down, then he could take the incessant fanboy talk. 

To put it simply, over the years, Kyle had mastered the art of figuring out how to make up for whatever Dan lacked. Not because he had to, but because he genuinely _wanted_ to. Because he cared so much that he felt the _need_ to. But somewhere along the way, caring had led to everything only ever being about Dan for Kyle, which had, amongst other things, meant burying his fear of flying as deep as he could so that it wouldn’t rub off on Dan and give him something else to worry about. 

It had worked, for a while. But there was only so much a man could handle, and when they went to Australia for a small tour and turbulences had started shaking the plane in every possible direction, the already built-up bundle of anxiety had had to explode. Kyle couldn’t remember the details of his first panic attack as he’d experienced them in a haze, but he could remember Dan reaching for his hand and threading their fingers together, and he knew that, as he’d felt like he was going to die right there and then, his lover had shifted in the seat next to him to rest his chin on Kyle’s shoulder.

He’d gently pressed his lips against the bearded man’s jaw, before whispering softly against his ear that everything was fine, that no, he wasn’t going to die, he was just having his very first panic attack, and that Dan wouldn’t let anything happen to him. 

Kyle remembered wanting to hysterically burst out with laughter at that. What was Dan going to do against flight turbulences and the literal _weather_? His lover was known and respected for many things, but upper body strength had never been one of them. If Dan couldn’t hold a cup of tea without the pretty china shattering to the floor at some point because he had just experienced a cramp in his forearm, Kyle wasn’t sure he would be able to fight off a storm. 

He also laughed because, how ironic was it that Dan was now trying to help him calm down? He had brought a lot of things into Kyle’s life, ever since they’d started dating and more generally from the moment they’d met, but it had never, _ever_ been serenity. Dan was the thrill Kyle had always felt was missing in his life, and he’d given him something to love passionately — first the band, and then Dan himself. But bringing him peace? He’d never done that. Which Kyle was crazy about, don’t get him wrong. He needed someone that would fight and argue with him, he needed someone to give him meaning in life by making him _feel_. He needed someone to hype him up over the smallest of things, like going to the shops for their daily grocery shopping. Yes, Dan did that. But he had never, in all the years he had known him, brought Kyle peace of mind. And he guessed that was why he was so surprised with how skilled Dan was at calming him down. It made sense, because as passionate as the singer was, he also had the gentlest soul any human being had ever been gifted with. It had just never been his role in their relationship.

From then on, though, Kyle started seeing his lover in a different way, and instead of trying to shield him from everything, he tried relying on him too, and shared more and more of his insecurities with him, as Dan had asked he did after realising Kyle had fears of his own too. The younger man was stunned to notice that their relationship grew even stronger after that, and when, one night, as they couldn’t sleep and had chosen to silently cuddle instead, Kyle had felt comfortable enough to tell Dan his biggest insecurity was caused by the fact he knew Dan deserved and could have found so much better than him, it somehow even resulted in them getting engaged. What had almost broken them apart so many times in the premises of their relationship, _communication_ — or rather, the lack of it —, they’d found a way to become experts at, and it had brought them closer than ever.

It was communicating that had pushed them both to say that yes, they did want to belong to each other for eternity when the small yet life-changing ceremony had come, and it was communication that had allowed them to call a break from touring for the band a few years after that, when they’d decided they wanted to take the next step in their relationship and adopt more than a cat.

This last decision was the reason why Kyle was forced to face his fear of flying again, three years after he had been set free of having to basically live on a plane. It was hard to feel resentment towards that one lazy Sunday morning on which they’d decided to take another step forward, though. Especially when the most beautiful thing had come out of it. Although Kyle held the memory of choosing to adopt a child very close to his heart, it wasn’t the one that first popped up in his mind when people brought the subject on the table. Beating hearts and shivering bodies were nothing compared to the emotions, plural, that had had Dan and him so overwhelmed they’d broken down into each other’s arms over nine months later. When he closed his eyes, his brain would still often play the scene back in his head, how he’d got home from a quick run to the shops to Dan sitting down on their sofa, red-rimmed eyes staring into the void as he was seemingly in a daze. As soon as his husband had picked up on how shaken the older man appeared to be, he’d dropped the shopping bags onto the countertop of their kitchen and had rushed back to the living room, only to kneel down before Dan. He’d felt a pang to his chest then, because he’d known what could have happened. He’d known the woman who had accepted to carry their baby could have backed out, or that something could have happened to her or the child.

“Dan?” Kyle had called in a whisper, scared of his reaction. Dan’s blank eyes had eventually succeeded in focusing on Kyle’s face, but he had kept his mouth shut, had just stared right back at his partner. “Love, what is it?” the younger man had insisted after a while, resting both of his hands on Dan’s cheeks to prevent him from averting his gaze again.

When Dan’s eyes had met Kyle’s, he’d seen it then. The cocktail of emotions his lover was attempting to make sense of. The concern had died down in his chest, and was soon replaced with a different kind of hammering from his heart. Adrenaline, but the good kind. The one that had made him want to pick Dan up from where they were sitting on the floor so they could dance in the middle of the living-room until they lost their breath.

“She’s just gone into labour.” Kyle had smoothed his thumbs along Dan’s cheeks, drying his tears away as he waited for his lover to continue. “She’s alright, sorry, I’m... I guess I’m just scared. What if we turn up and she wants to keep her? What if we take her home and she takes her away from us at some point? We won’t be able to get a parental order before, like, ages. What if...”

Feeling him spiralling down again, Kyle had leant in, cutting him right off in the middle of his rant to softly kiss his lips. When he’d pulled away, Dan had looked a tad less stressed, which had made Kyle smile as he rested his forehead against his husband’s.

“Dan, there are so many ‘what if’s, we can’t possibly address them all. But you’re driving yourself mad for no reason right now. We took the time to actually get to know Sarah. She was really happy to help us. Trust the process, yeah?” he’d reassured him in a calming voice, running his fingers up and down his forearm in a soothing motion. “C’mon, baby. Let’s go meet our actual baby.” Dan had given him a smile at that.

The events that had followed blurred together in Kyle’s mind now. They had packed up and jumped in the first Uber they’d been able to find, and Kyle smiled fondly at the memory of the driver getting deeply involved in trying to get them to the hospital on time as Dan rang both their parents. Then there was a lot of running through endless corridors and holding Dan’s hand and crying and hugging and kissing and somehow, two years later, Kyle was on the plane with the two loves of his life, both of them asleep in the seat next to his.

Kyle stared at them in disbelief. The plane was _literally_ jumping up and down, and yet Margot, despite it being her first ever rodeo, had dozed off two hours into the flight, comfortably cuddled up into Dan’s lap. Dan had fought the urge to fall asleep for another hour, but his head had soon ended up in its rightful place, on Kyle’s shoulder, and he was now snoring softly in the crook of Kyle’s neck, his right hand holding on to Kyle’s left one. The younger man caught their reflection in the small, switched off seat-back screens and smiled. His little family.

Margot had just turned two the week before, and she looked more and more like Dan everyday, with her ebony dark hair and big blue eyes. Kyle didn’t mind that she wasn’t biologically his, especially not if it meant he got to raise a louder, smaller version of Dan everyday. She was currently drooling all over his husband’s favourite jumper, which Kyle knew would result in Dan complaining in a half-arsed manner when he would wake up and be mildly irritated with the child, until she batted her eyelashes at him and all would be immediately forgiven.

He allowed himself to let go of the fear of, essentially, _crashing and dying_ as he reflected upon the reason why he was sat in the uncomfortable seat for the prospect of over ten hours in the first place. One of Dan’s cousins in South Africa was getting married, and they had promised to bring Margot with them to the wedding, as most of Dan’s relatives in Durban hadn’t met her yet. All very positive reasons, then, and Kyle tried to focus on that. And it worked, for a while, to the point where he thought he might actually manage to fall asleep himself. Until the plane flew through a particularly thick cloud and all the lights went off for a second, making Kyle jump in his seat.

The sudden movement woke Dan up with a start, and the older man squinted at Kyle with sleepy eyes. “What’s wrong? Was I hurting you?” he asked in a husky voice, rubbing his eyes before readjusting Margot on his lap. He must have read the fear in Kyle’s eyes then, because he sighed a little and linked his fingers back with his husband’s. “Everything’s alright, love. See, the seatbelt icon isn’t even on. Means you don’t have to worry, they have it under control.”

Dan leant in to kiss his cheek, but missed Kyle’s face spectacularly as the plane jolted about again, eliciting cries and screams of surprise from the other passengers. The seatbelt icon was turned on at this exact moment, and Kyle gave his husband a dirty look.

“Well, shit. We might actually die then,” Dan deadpanned and let out a laugh when Kyle slapped his shoulder, squeezing his hand. “I’m only joking. This isn’t the first time we’re going to South Africa together. You know there are always turbulences in this area, but you also know we usually make it out alive. Remember the first time we went to Durban together, without the band?”

“I swear, you have to stop bringing this up all the time. In my version of the story, I don’t cry, you do. I have a reputation to maintain, Dan,” Kyle muttered through gritted teeth, closing his eyes and hanging onto the armrest as he quickly calculated how long he would potentially survive in the body of water they were flying over if he was ejected off the plane.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, baby,” Dan teased, shaking his head affectionately.

Just as Kyle was about to lean over his armrest to kiss Dan’s lips, Margot stirred in the older man’s arms, blinking to adjust to the plane’s dazzling lights. He watched as Dan ran a hand through the child’s hair, groaning when it tangled in a knot.

“Your hair’s a mess, Mags,” he complained, and Kyle rolled his eyes.

“Wonder who she got that from,” Kyle teased, and Dan stuck his tongue out at him, shooting him a mischievous smile.

“Wanna go see Daddy? He was about to start crying ‘cause he’s so scared right now, I think he could use a hug,” Dan singsonged, giving Kyle a side glance and chuckling to himself as his husband discreetly flipped him off.

Margot held her arms out for Kyle, though, and he gladly picked her up, smiling fondly as she buried her head against his chest and held him in her impossibly tiny arms. The small girl soon dozed off against Kyle, who turned to Dan to ask him something. Whatever he was going to say died on his tongue when his gaze fell upon Dan’s face, allowing him to read the emotions plastered there. His soft smile and starry eyes transpired with nothing but utter and unconditional love, and the fact that Kyle could read it so openly was just as much as a miracle as the girl he was holding in his arms. The premises of their relationship had been tough, especially with Dan’s fear of opening up to him. The fact that he was now fully honest with Kyle still felt like the biggest victory in the entire world. 

And right then and there, Kyle found he didn’t care much if one of the engines failed them, or if the plane lost a wing through the thick fog. He was convinced the love he felt for the two apples of his eyes would be enough to fly the whole plane all the way to South Africa.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope everyone’s keeping safe, wearing masks and practicing social distancing. If anyone ever needed it, you can always reach out to me on Tumblr, at @eeasydays.
> 
> Thanks again! Xx


End file.
